CINCINNATI – A Mount Lookout homeowner said it was a miracle no one was hurt when a crane crashed into their newly renovated house Tuesday afternoon. And Courtney Piana said she saw it all happen.
"It could have been so bad, really, I think that we had a spiritual moment - all of us," Piana told WCPO.
SEE a photo gallery of the damage.
Piana said she was sitting on her deck on Windisch Avenue when the crane smashed into her garage and split it in two. The crane was trying to lift a tree over the house when some of the bolts holding the crane to the truck broke.
"I had a front-row view of this because I was on the deck watching this happening," Piana said. "I was a little worried and I was watching them pull this limb up and it got wobbly, and all of a sudden it sounded like a tree was falling where it was tearing little by little."
The crane came through the roof but stopped inches before hitting Piana's car. The truck driver was found safe under the debris, she said.
The crane came so close to hitting another worker that Piana doesn't know how he escaped.
"It went so close to the guy who was down in the back. It's a tree company and it was him and his brother, and his brother is the one that it just barely dodged him. I can't believe it didn't hit him at all," she said.
"It felt pretty surreal, like a movie. Just happy that everyone was OK."
Piana's builder came out after the accident and said the damage will likely cost $100,000, she said.
